


Lost and Driven

by midnightlone



Category: Black Panther (2018), Black Panther (Comics)
Genre: Drama & Romance, F/M, Romance, Smut, Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-17
Updated: 2018-12-17
Packaged: 2019-09-21 06:30:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17038517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/midnightlone/pseuds/midnightlone
Summary: He can't give in. He's lost the second he does and he knows that he's not the one lost.She doesn't consider herself remarkable doesn't need to. Can't find something that was never lost.





	Lost and Driven

**Author's Note:**

> Reposted from tumblr just in case  
> don't steal my shit  
> written by Lyjma

“Happy Birthday, honey!” He woke with a smile as, his wife rained kisses all over his face; from his eyelids, down the bridge of his crooked nose, then finally his lips. He rolled onto his back and wrapped the arm that was already under her, round her shoulder, pulling her down into him. He rubbed down to the curve of her spine until his hand found itself splayed open on her rump and his other arm behind his head. Her front pressed against his side with her hands on his chest; under her chin accompanied by fine-boned wrists wrapped in charm bracelets. Rubbing a hand across his chest she leaned forward and kissed him. She continued to pepper kisses across his broad face as she sung off key and warm fingers traced patterns on his chest. “Happy birrrthday to you, happy haaaappy birthday to youuu-”

He sat back and enjoyed the moment as she continued to serenade him off key. Long fingers of sun peeked through the blinds unhindered by the sheer curtains. The light bathed the pale teal room in a warm glow that set his Irish lass’s fading wine locks aflame once more. She was wearing that slinky blue number, she’d bought a few anniversaries back, it was short and gauzy. In the light, he admired how it left that tempting skin of her chest open to his gaze and mouth. He kissed her mastectomy scar. He moved the hand tucked behind his head and stroked along her jaw and kissed her in the same spots the sun did.

“Your beeper went off about 40 minutes ago. But I didn’t recognize the number.”

“Why didn’t you wake me?” He pulled away from the space between her neck and shoulder to roll over and reach for his beeper and mentally cursed. His body protested. Not now. He had four more missed pings that started an hour after he arrived home that morning. He sat up swinging his legs over the side preparing to stand and rubbed his eyes. “I’ve got to go.”

“You didn’t come in until 3 AM and every day for the week before you took an extra shift.” She squinted at him and sat up as well and shimmied up onto her knees behind him rubbing his shoulders. He couldn’t help leaning back into the pressure as she expertly melted the tension he’d been carrying around for the last few weeks.

“Ronan…” what were they talking about? She kissed the back of his neck and carded her fingers through his hair. His head fell forward, and he was once more under her spell.

“You should stay in bed with me, Grant. I’ll do that thing.” She whispered into his ear something they’d only reserved for birthdays. “Then after your birthday dinner, we’ll do it again.”

Those nimble hands tempted him but he couldn’t afford to not take care of this, not when they were so close. He had to get to the morgue and take care of business. Then he’d come home to his family and amazing wife and go to Mino’s and eat their crappy veal that if you squinted looked more raccoon. Ronan continued her attack on his back and shoulders but he didn’t give in this time. She stopped kneading his shoulders and wrapped her arms around his midsection like a child would their favorite stuffed bear. She whined as he made to stand.

“Grant.”

“We cannot afford to fall behind again on any of the bills. We’ve just made it back to black.”

“… sigh,” she went back to kissing him after he stood and turned in her direction and laid a chaste kiss on her lips in lieu of a goodbye. Her hands wandered under his shirt, her hands hot against his sides. She pulled him closer.

He was late, but he didn’t mind.

He was two hours late, by the time he’d pulled himself away from his wife. In that time he’d been paged four more times but his wife had kept her word and did that thing. He, as a result, was far too relaxed to care. He even ate that disgusting bran muffin his wife was insistent on feeding him and took a swallow of sugar-free orange juice she’d started to buy.

When he’d pulled into the morgue parking lot, his normal parking spot was still open and he’d caught an elevator that took him straight down to his floor. The day had started off great and was on roll. He entered the lab and could hear the scratching of pen against paper. Even seeing Dr. Diaz’s scowl didn’t take the pep from his step instead he waved at the Diaz and Andre, who returned the gesture with a jerk of his chin, slipped from his jacket into his lab coat. He moseyed over to the intake pile and frowned when he couldn’t find the file he was looking for. The tension was slowly coming back to him as he surmised Diaz was filling out the file he needed to get his hands. They hadn’t cut open the body yet, thank god for small mercies.

“You’re late Bailey.”

“It’s my birthday my wife gave me an early gift.”

“Can’t imagine what an old SOB like you could want.”

“Just some rest and relaxation,” Bailey smirked at him. “I’ve got this. Go home relax you lug maybe get your wife to offer you some RnR.”

“Nope, I need, to play catch up with my files.”

“You sure? I can finish this one off in an hour.”

“Not necessary go home catch some z’s”

Diaz shrugged and turned away from the body, pulled up his face shield, pulled off his gloves and scratched his beard. Andre, his assistant was still there combing a body with a single focus. Normally he didn’t mind his fresh-faced assistant taken the lead in his absence mostly because the boy was good. Sadly, today could not be one of those days. He picked up the file Andre had left on the try across from him and read CCWF (Central California Women’s facility) this was the file he was looking for.

“You mind getting me a coffee kid.” He looked up from his steady perusal, pulled off his gloves as Grant pulled his on. Andre nodded and paused the recorder after he threw his glove in the trash.

“Black with umm four sugars?”

“Yeah but do me a solid and use real sugar. Don’t give me that sweet and low bullshit,” He grimaced remembering the bran muffin Ronnie had given him. it tasted like cardboard and just as dense. He amended as Andre hit the door, “and a donut it was Diaz’s turn to buy em’ today.”

As Andre passed him Grant caught a whiff of chlorine clinging to his skin.

He took this time to go over the preliminary findings. As he expected they were meticulous. He read on. She was a tall woman, 6’2 according to her chart but on the table, she seemed smaller. She was 25, a kid. The treatment she suffered was plain to see they dislocated her left shoulder and there were pattern bruises on her arms, from being grabbed and her knees. He was getting sick of this shit. She was a looker; despite the ecchymosis that covered the right side of her face and a majority of her torso.

He noted he observations and when Andre came back with his coffee; he took a grateful swallow. He burned his mouth, but it distracted him from the bitterness at the back of his throat.

There were two spleens and two scales in front of him, where there should have only been one. He wasn’t even halfway through his shift when he started to feel sick; he took a healthy swig of coffee attempting to shake off the drowsiness perhaps his morning with his beautiful wife had tired him out. The classical music he’d normally played while he was working seemed to have slowed and deepened with each moment. While the room around him swirled and wobbled.

“Doc you ok?” Andre called just as the ground rushed up to smack him.

He woke up with his eyes trying to burrow themselves deeper in their sockets. The light burned and the way someone positioned him left him directly under it. He tried to lean forward, duck his head down but couldn’t. His hands tightly bound behind his back to a chair with coarse rope, it also seemed to be crisscross around his midsection. So instead he blinked through the burning and tried to look into the dim surroundings. Where the fuck was he? He tugged at the restraints again and felt the chair whine under him. He looked around and once more down trying to figure out a way out. the chair had wheels but they were locked in place but the swivel function still worked. Could he bounce the chair hard enough to unlock the wheels?

“Took you long enough to wake up Doc.” He jerked forward, body tensing in the restraints searching for the voice. He would die tonight. From the dark, that voice seemed to answer his panicked thought. "Chill Doc you do what I say and you’ll go home to Ronnie alive.“ If not a body bag sweet Ronnie would get him in a body bag. The threat was unspoken but Grant could read between the lines just fine.

He squinted and blinked repeatedly until a body just outside the light came to focus. They were sitting on a chair just outside the light, leaned back and staring at him. He reclined back with one arm thrown over the back of the chair with his legs apart; his boots flat on the ground. He squinted harder at the man. Andre? Gone was the awkwardly slinky kid he sent to fetch his coffee in his place was a predator.

“Andre kid, what are you doing?” Grant tugged at his binds once more. His shoulders protesting as Andre just looked at him before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a remote and pressing a button. The light above him went off and a light from further up came on projecting a face on the concrete wall in front of him.

It was a Name Robin Jones followed by a picture of a smiling girl tall and slender holding an older wizened woman in her arms. They had the same smile and kind eyes. They were both the color of hickory. Where the younger one was a fresh-faced skin dewy with braids, and the older wrinkled in all the best places around her mouth and the corners of her eyes. she was a woman that smiled a lot and it looked like the younger woman did too.

Andre was still staring at him from his seat. The photo cut over to a tall lanky girl with pigtails singing in a choir. It changed to a girl standing next to a shorter girl their arms wrapped around each other, another of the shorter girl slipping a corsage onto the taller girl. The images just kept coming and Andre just kept looking at him. “I don’t don’t understand why are you showing this?”

“I need you to witness them and then become my accomplice.”

Andre stood then, and the picture changed to another woman this one was older perhaps in her thirties. It was one of those maternity photos she was looking down and lovingly caressing her belly. In the next photo, she was holding a boy around three they were smiling big at the camera. The next was a spanish woman diminutive but man did she smile so beautifully. In her photos, a large family surrounded her mostly women with big hair and those hoop skirts. The photos went on and on one woman after another, each woman pictured smiling or with loved ones. with each woman, he saw Ronnie, all three of his children, in their smiles.

“Do any of the women look familiar?” They looked familiar each one of those women had been on his table. The most recent had been on his table this morning. Andre said he wanted him to witness, but this was too much forced to face his treachery. “Don’t look away you son of a bitch.”

Andre snapped from behind him and there was the sound of a scuffle and then dragging. Andre appeared dragging a suit-clad body he pulled and heaved until he could drop the man to his knees in front of the women.

On the screen was a new woman, dark like pecans, her hair a riot of curls as she held a baby and behind her stood a man just as dark holding both the woman and child in his arms. She was smiling at the camera while the man smiled down at her. His face bright with love his teeth so white and straight. that pictured switched to a video of her singing to the baby in her arms her voice came from the shadows low and husky.

"Just call on me baby when you need a hand,” she danced around what looked like a small living room. He body swaying to a beat only she could hear as the baby in her arms listened with rapt attention. She continued to sing to the bundle as the camera zoomed in on her face.

“All these women you and your men terrorized and assaulted mentally, physically and sexually and when they stayed strong what did you do?” Andre grabbed the man by the back of his collar and forced him to look. The man’s shoulders shook, and he tried to speak through his gag but all Grant could hear was a high-pitched wheeze. Andre released the man let him crumble to the floor and he looked up at ceiling, rubbed his face and turned away from both of them. He looked back at him. "I have you to thank for this Doc you kept a record and from there it was easy to follow the crumbs.“

”But it‘ aint enough.” Andre walked away from the projection and into the dark and came back with a gurney he disappeared one more time after and reappeared pushing a cart. He watched as Andre pulled the remote from his pocket and push a button the lights nearly blinded him. “It‘s why you’re here Doc you hafeta to pay the piper.”

He was paying the price owed dammit. He made sure the damage done to their bodies was a secret that lied with them. So what if he got a little something extra for it! He donated the rest after he paid on the bills to group homes all over the city. How much more could the piper want from him?

“Andre.” he tried to get the boy’s attention but Andre ignored him as he tinkered with the gurney. Getting it floor level and forcing the other man on it soon after. After he strapped the man into the gurney, he reached for a crowbar off of the table he’s wheeled out earlier and slipped it into a space under the gurney. He couldn’t see from his spot but Andre pumped his arm, and the gurney rose. Andre went back to the cart and picked up a small baggie and a spoon. Grant recognized what Andre was doing as he looked away. "Son you don’t have to do this.”

“I’m not you are.” Andre looked over and they caught eyes as he walked forward and untied him. Grant tensed preparing to run but once untied he found his movements still restricted, he looked down and finally saw the harness. From behind him he could hear him tinkering with the harness until it tightened around his chest and arms. His movement was stiff and inhuman as he moved to the gurney.

When he was finally there Andre released him and moved to the other side after putting the syringe in his hand. Did he really expect him to go along with this? He went to throw it but the part of the harness around his elbow impeded his attempt to throw it. Andre was still just looking at him but this time with a slight board expression. He rose an eyebrow as if to say are you ready now? He looked at the man on the gurney and recognized him instantly Warden Briggs and in that moment they caught eyes as Briggs mentally pleaded for his help.

He couldn’t do it. “I can’t.”

“I thought you’d say that, so I brought something for you.” Andre turned and grabbed a folder from the cart opened it and laid it across Briggs chest. ”Read the paternity test.”

He looked at the page lost as he read it. By the time he finished it he was more than happy to depress the plunger in Briggs arm.

“Can I go home now? Please?” it exhausted him, his knees went weak, but the harness kept him from collapsing forward onto Briggs. Instead, he fell back as the ground once more rushed up to met him. The images of the women playing behind his lids as Ronnie‘s voice sang lean on me. “Ronnie-”

When he came to he was lying on his back in a truck. Andre was once again in front of him looking at him.

“Don’t go to work tomorrow in fact when you get home surprise your family with the news you cashed in your vacation days and brought them all tickets to visit Ireland the home of your wife’s kin.” Andre pulled out a folder and lay them on Grant. ”My boys going to take you back to your car and put you in it wait an hour before you try to do anything by then you’ll be fully aware.”

There was a hushed conversation between the driver and Andre but by then his adrenaline had died down and left him shivering and exhausted. He gladly welcomed the darkness.

~~~

“We straight?”

“Yeah consider it paid.”

“You sure you don’t want to kill him?”

“Nah, I made a deal he fulfilled his end.”

“Aight I’ll get him to his car safely and bug out”

“Thanks for this” they dapped and before the driver started the car to pull off.

“You make sure when you get over there you don’t forget where you from.”

“Never” he sucked his teeth and frowned.

“Matta fact hit me up before you fly out. I’ll give the address for Mama the hook up for when you get sick of that white people food.”

“Cool”

“Maybe you’ll see ya Jelly Belly.”  
“Shut yo ass up”

~~~

The gurney under him was lumpy, and it hurt so bad. Briggs felt as though he was melting from the inside out. his chest was tightening as though there was a snake constricting his chest. He was shivering the cuff around his wrist cutting into him as his body bowed and contorted.

He was having trouble remembering how he’d ended up in the warehouse. He remembered getting up and getting ready for work. He remembered his meeting with the board of directors and he remembered going to drink at the country club everything after that was a blur.

When he woke up tied up and propped against a wall. He‘d tried to escape but the knots binding him were strong. He watched the other guy get carried in and given the comfort of a chair. It wasn‘t until the black kid started the projector up and played his power point he knew. He recognized a few he had payed close attention too but there were so many he hadn’t thought about in years. He looked away as every face became a familiar corpse.

He was not about to feel guilty for preserving his prisons reputation. So what if sometimes his guards got carried away they made up for it in loyalty. They never tried to unionize or collectively bargain for more than a vending machine in the break room. They ran a tight ship and best of all the state was meeting its yearly quota and lining his pockets handsomely along with bonuses from the board.

But as he opened his mouth to scream his throat tightened, and it was impossible to scream. By the time his body calmed the black kid was back sitting on a chair as the projector still ran this time it restarted back from the start.

”It’ll take bout seven hours for the hemlock to kill you.” The kid stood and went over to the cart he’d gotten the needle from earlier. Instead, he reached down and pulled out collapsed boxes and threw them over his body followed by a crowbar. “That gives us plenty of time together.”

No, he shook his head he had a family that would look for him the boy smiled as though reading his mind. ”As of this morning, you left your wife for the women you got caught with last year. You left her a note telling her not to bother looking for you. You left her all your account information. Well, except what you were hiding in the Caymans that went towards something else.”

He’d lost count after the first 15 hits and he had lost consciousness between the things the boy did to him he felt like one giant bruise and when he attempted to beg for mercy, he lost his ability to speak. He wasn’t even sure how many hours passed but by the time his voiced returned, all he could manage were slurred half words

“Whrrr oorr y?” He would not last much longer and lost consciousness for the final time not before hearing the answer to his question.

“My name is Erik Stevens and I’m bringing justice to Kadija Stevens”


End file.
